President John Dramani Mahama has expressed disappointment with the United States for voting against a United Nations resolution recognising the transatlantic slave trade and racialised chattel enslavement as the gravest crime against humanity.
Speaking to TRT World on Friday, August 21, President Mahama said he did not expect the US to oppose the resolution, arguing that European powers played the leading role in transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas.
“I was disappointed that they did because I don’t hold the US accountable for slavery,” he said.
The President explained that most Africans taken to what later became the United States were transported by European powers at a time when the US was still a colony.
He, however, acknowledged that slavery continued in the country after independence and was eventually abolished following the Civil War.
“Even though after the abolition and after the United States became an independent country, slavery continued until the Civil War was fought and that eventually freed the slaves in the US,” he said.
While acknowledging the economic benefits the US gained from slavery, President Mahama said he believed European countries that organised and facilitated the transatlantic slave trade should bear greater historical responsibility.
“I don’t think that they should bear the guilt, in a certain sense, for it because I would have thought that the European countries that brought the slaves there would feel more adverse to the resolution,” he said.
He also questioned why the US voted against the resolution while several European countries with direct historical links to the slave trade abstained.
“Even they abstained,” he noted.
The comments follow Ghana’s historic push for reparatory justice at the UN General Assembly, where 123 countries voted in favour of the resolution on March 25, 2026. The US, Israel and Argentina voted against it, while 52 countries, including Britain and EU member states, abstained.
The resolution, championed by President Mahama in his role as African Union Champion for advancing justice and reparations, calls for dialogue on reparatory justice and the restitution of cultural property. Although it is not legally binding, it carries significant political and moral weight.
President Mahama has said Ghana’s reparations campaign is aimed not only at addressing the historical injustice of slavery but also at promoting truth, healing and reconciliation while tackling its lasting effects.
The issue is expected to remain a key part of Ghana’s international diplomatic agenda as the country works with African and diaspora partners to push for practical steps towards reparatory justice.
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